


Lion Kings, Dragon Fire, and Super Powers Too

by sherlockbbcfan



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-04 15:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4143144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherlockbbcfan/pseuds/sherlockbbcfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Merlin's partnership was an odd one to say the least. The two superheroes have fought since they met but in the face of an evil alliance of villains will they really be able to forge a partnership and maybe even save the world?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Absolutely not!” Arthur yelled as he slammed his hand down on the metal table. Gaius looked at him exasperatedly. Arthur hadn’t taken well to the announcement of his new sidekick. Not that he’d exactly taken well to the previous announcements of his other sidekicks. Seventeen other sidekicks and Arthur had thrown a fit about them all. “I’m not working with him, Gaius.”

  
“I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice.” Gaius droned.

  
“He’s a flailing buffoon! He’ll get the both of us killed before we even take on our first mission.” The youth continued to rant.

  
“Merlin is a good student. You could learn much from him.” Gaius said sagely.

  
“Me? Learn from him?! I can’t believe you’re going to put me with that- that- fool!”

  
“I didn’t assign your partnership, Arthur. You’re father did.” The old mentor finally snapped. Arthur stopped wide eyed and stared at Gaius.

  
“My father?” he repeated slowly.  At mention of the director of the academy, Arthur seemed both shocked and outraged all the more. Gaius nodded.

  
“So, I suggest you make the best of the director’s decision and get used to your situation.”

  
Arthur groaned but seemed to be finished with his temper tantrum. Silently, he walked out the door of the command room, most likely to take his anger out on something. Most likely with a lot of punching. Gaius just hoped that he’d make it to the training room this time.

  
It was obvious that Arthur was going to be against the arrangement. Gaius knew it, K knew it, even Uther knew it. But the director had insisted that his son should be partnered with the other boy. Merlin Emrys. No one was really sure what the extent of his powers was. He was clearly skilled with magic but he had never really applied himself during classes or testing. He failed potions quite spectacularly yet somehow managed to create a flawless invisibility potion which he proceeded to pour into the cups of all the members of Kestrel house. Of course, when questioned he insisted no one could prove that he was the mastermind behind the prank against the rival house but it was common knowledge that he’d been hoarding the ingredients for the potion for months. Gaius still had headaches when he thought about the overflowing hospital ward that appeared confusingly empty and the ensuing chaos when the staff kept running into the invisible students.

  
He was odd but well liked, particularly by the other members of his house. He and Arthur were often found arguing in the corridors. Or on the lawn. Or in classrooms. Or just about anywhere they were breathing the same air. The young sorcerer of Everember house and the golden haired head of Leorex house were almost always challenging each other in some fashion. Gaius didn’t really see how their partnership could end in anything other than disaster. Especially if-

  
A loud crack of thunder interrupted his thoughts. Well, seems like Merlin got the news too then. The walls started shaking and Gaius could only assume that Merlin had run into Arthur in the hallways. It was obvious that the gods wanted to punish him. The lights started flickering and rain poured inside while outside the sun shined bright as ever. Students' screams filled the building as footsteps pounded on the stone floor most likely heading to the door to escape the downpour. Oh, hell. Uther better be giving him a generous vacation otherwise Gaius was going to kill him.


	2. Chapter 2

The following week was arguably the most difficult in the history of Albion Academy…well, not including the time that Morgana Pendragon had accidentally released an army of the undead during Relics and Runes. Initially, Merlin had been refusing to use his magic in front of Arthur and Arthur had been refusing to acknowledge Merlin’s presence. K had spoken to the two of them about it, prattling on about destiny, and partnership, and coins and blah, blah, blah, neither of them really cared but they did start talking to each other. Although that also meant that Merlin and Arthur had been bickering without end during every training session and their usually stormy encounters in the hallways had become even worse. Arthur had taken to pointing out Merlin’s clumsy nature at every opportunity, to which Merlin responded with some rather colourful insults of his own creation. Unfortunately, it seemed that the two had a propensity for running into each other at the worst possible times.

Like today. Today was one of those times. Merlin was running late for class. That is to say he was actually sprinting through the hallways. One girl had had to fly up out of his way to avoid being run over. Arthur, on the other hand, had an off period and was going to spend it in the training facility. Luckily for Merlin, Arthur was a soft landing pad. Unluckily for Arthur, Merlin had been running rather quickly and caught him off guard. Super strength be damned, Arthur hit the floor hard with a flailing Merlin on top of him. The two shared a look of shock before grimacing at one another. Merlin stood quickly, gathering his books from the floor. Arthur glared at him heatedly as he got up from the floor.

"What do you think you’re doing?” Arthur asked haughtily.

“Going to class.” Merlin sneered back.

“Late as usual, eh Emrys?” Arthur goaded.

“Not all of us can break down walls whenever we want.” He mumbled.

“Why don’t you just use your magic? Or are you completely useless at that too?”

“For your information, I can’t use my magic to transport inside the school, you utter clot-”

“For the last time Merlin, that is not a word!” Arthur rolled his eyes.

“Clotpole.” Merlin muttered continuing on his way.

At least that’s what he was going to do before he was hit in the head by something very hard and moving very quickly. Merlin fell to the floor, clutching his head as a woman’s voice screeched behind him. He turned and saw the blonde girl from his potions class yelling at Arthur. What was her name? Valerie? Vera? Something with a v in it anyway. Arthur held his hands up in a half shrug half surrender. The v girl looked to be getting even angrier at that when suddenly her hands burst into flames and her hair seemed to be glowing. Arthur, to his credit, didn’t look frightened. In fact, he looked sort of annoyed more than anything. The girl looked like she was about to slap Arthur across the face so Merlin did the first thing he could think of. He turned her into a frog. Arthur looked around dumbly for a moment before his eyes landed on Merlin, kneeling on the floor, hand still outstretched, eyes fading back to blue from gold. He took a moment to look back and forth from Merlin to the frog a bit uncomprehendingly.

“She _was_ getting rather annoying.” He said at last.

Merlin’s face started forming a smile before he reminded himself that this was Arthur Pendragon he was speaking to. Also, he had just turned another student into a frog. That was not so good. In fact, that was probably expelled-from-Albion-forever worthy material right there. And all in defense of a clotpole. Great. Should he just walk away? No, that would make it worse. Well, maybe he could tell a teacher or something and- No, that was also a bad idea. Oh, why did he have to go and turn her into a frog? Really? What was so bad about Arthur bloody Pendragon getting a good slap across his arrogant pratish face?

“Merlin, I can hear you worrying.” Arthur said crossly.

“Well, what do you expect I do?” Merlin exclaimed. “I just turned a girl into a frog!”

“Just turn her back, then.” The blonderolled his eyes.

“I can’t just turn her back. What if she goes and tells someone that I turned her into a sodding frog?”

“Look, just- wait where did she go?” Arthur cut off. Merlin looked around frantically for the frog but only he and Arthur remained in the hallway.

“We lost the girl I just turned into a frog?” Merlin screamed.

“Okay, calm down.” Arthur said turning to Merlin. “You go that way, I’ll go this way.” He ran off towards one end of the corridor as Merlin took off towards the other. Merlin peeked in several classrooms, opened a maintenance closet, and found no trace of the frog. He started to panic and ran back to find Arthur, but the other boy wasn’t in the hallway, sending Merlin into an even worse state. Just as he was about to hide in the toilets until he came up with a plan, Arthur’s head popped out from an empty classroom.

“In here.” He said.

Merlin walked into the room to find Arthur holding the frog in question. He breathed a sigh of relief. Arthur raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“Um-” he began.

“Merlin, just turn her back.” Arthur sighed.

“Well…” he continued

“Merlin!” Arthur snapped.

“I-”

"You do know how to turn her back, don’t you?”

“Not…exactly…”

“Merlin!”

“I mean I know how to it’s just- I’ve never really tried it before.”

“That’s just fantastic. So you just go around turning people into things and hoping you can change them back, then?”

“I didn’t actually mean to turn her into a frog, it just sort of happened!” Merlin shouted indignantly.

“Well, you’d better find a way to turn her back.”

“I will-”

“Now, Merlin!” Arthur yelled.

“Yes, alright.” Merlin said. Wonderful. He was going to be late  _and_ get expelled all while enduring the company of Arthur Pendragon. How could this day get any better?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I am so sorry. I meant to update on Monday but then my stupid Online Finance class happened. Yeah, required credits are the worst. I made it longer to try and buy my way back into your good books. Hope you liked it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it took so long for me to update! I had to finish this ridiculous consumer and personal finance course that I wouldn't even be taking if it wasn't a required credit. Anyway, I won't be updating for at least 12 days because I'm in a law program at Stanford University starting tomorrow. Wish me luck! I'll try to update more regularly after that. I tried to make it longer to appease the writing gods. Enjoy! Comments welcome.

“It’s not working.” Merlin groaned after another attempted spell.

  
“Yes, I can see that, Merlin.” Arthur grumbled. They had been trying to turn Vivian back into herself for nearly two hours but she still remained the same.

  
“Maybe we should just go tell somebody.” Merlin ventured.

  
“Are you trying to get expelled?” Arthur rolled his eyes.

  
“I didn’t mean a teacher. Somebody’s got to know how to turn her back.” Merlin started panicking again.

  
“Stop panicking, you idiot.” Arthur grumbled.

  
“At least I’m not a prat.” Merlin mumbled back.

  
“I’m not the one who turned a student into a frog, _Mer_ lin.”

  
“I only did it because she was about to slap you.” Merlin snapped. “Why was she so mad at you anyway?”

  
“I may have told her to, um, bugger off the other day. Rather publicly.”

  
“What? Why?” Merlin laughed.

  
“Because she was stalking me!”

  
“I doubt it was quite that serious.”

  
“She was waiting in my room one night to profess her love for me!”

  
“I take it back that’s rather stalkerish.”

  
“My point.” Arthur sniffed.

  
“Still, I’m not sure that you had to use such offensive language.”

  
“Shut up, Merlin.” Arthur said. Merlin smiled. The frog croaked.

  
“Well, I’ve got no idea how to turn her back. So unless you know another sorcerer who would be willing to help us…” Merlin trailed off.

  
Arthur thought for a moment until his eyes lit up excitedly.

  
“I think I know someone who can turn her back.” He said happily.

  
“Really? Who?” Merlin asked but the blonde superhero had already run out the door.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *   *    *    *   *   *    * 

Morgana studied the page of her transfiguration textbook skeptically. The frog sat on the table in the girls’ dormitory. Merlin had tried to stay outside but Arthur had dragged him in by his shirt. Although he’d protested and tried to talk the other boy out of going into Morgana’s room, Merlin somehow ended up standing in front of the two Pendragons as Arthur explained their situation.

“I honestly don’t know what this is going to do.” She sighed. “But best give it a shot and see what happens.”

  
Merlin and Arthur shared a look but she had already started chanting in an ancient language. Arthur had honestly been expecting something a bit more dramatic than Morgana’s eyes glowing gold and the frog slowly turning back into the blonde haired girl. He’d been looking forward to some fancy lights at the very least. The girl lay on the table, blinking up at the ceiling. The air was filled with a heavy silence for a moment. Finally, her gaze landed on Merlin and she broke into a large smile.

  
“Merlin!” she yelled happily, throwing her arms around his neck.

  
“Hey…Valerie…” he tried to pry her arms off of him.

  
“Vivian.” She chirped.

  
“What?”

  
“My name’s Vivian.” She corrected gently.

  
“Right, Vivian. Look I-” he began.

  
“Is that the time?” she cried looking at the clock. “I’d better be heading. I’ll see you tomorrow, Merlin.” She winked before sauntering out the door.

  
“Um…what was that?” he asked facing Arthur and Morgana. Both of them were stifling laughs.

  
“That,” said Morgana, “Is your problem now.”

  
“What?” his eyes widened comically.

  
“Well, there’s good news, Merlin.” Arthur said slapping his back. “Vivian’s not a frog anymore and I’m free of her. I should be thanking you.”

  
“What do you mean?”

  
“She’s onto you now.” He laughed walking out the room. Merlin groaned.

  
“Chin up, Merlin.” Morgana smiled. “Could be worse.”

  
“How?”

  
“You could be expelled.”

  
“I think I might prefer that actually.”

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *    *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Merlin had had a long week. First off, Vivian had shown up outside his room the next morning and walked to class with him despite his insistence that he could find his own way, thank you very much. Then K had called him into his office and told him some riddle about coins and future or something, he didn’t really know; he’d zoned out after a while. And to top it all off Morgana sodding Pendragon was sitting with him at lunch now. Gwen had just about fallen off her chair when she’d spotted her at their usual table. Although, is partnership with Arthur was going a little better. They still insulted each other at every opportunity but there wasn’t any heat behind it anymore. Training had been easier now too if he thought about it. Yes, it’s all well and good for Arthur now he’s rid of Vivian, Merlin thought to himself.

  
Gaius, on the other hand, was having the best week of his life. Since Merlin and Arthur had been assigned to one another there hadn’t been any extreme pranks from Everember house nor any sidekicks coming into the hospital ward from Leorex’s overaggressive training sessions. He was beginning to think Uther had been a genius to put the two together.


End file.
